A Taste of Old Age
I’m old and gray, and shrivelled like a prune.
My hearing is gone and I’m no longer in tune.
My joints are rusted and need lubrication,
but can’t get quick enough to the service station.
My colon has become a polyp factory,
and every year there’s the dreaded colonoscopy.
My prostate is enlarged and plays havoc with me;
I can’t even turn a tap without the urge to pee.
The glass of wine I enjoyed with my meals
was taken away by the medic on wheels.
Indigestion and heartburn come regularly,
in the middle of the night, especially.
I gave up my health, it seems to me,
to retire in comfort, with good company.
But who needs wealth at eighty-three,
when I can’t even stand straight to pee!
Earth’s Noose
Exponential growth is what I see
by the time a baby turns three!
Thankfully, it doesn’t continue
’till he’s one hundred and three,
but stops completely
before he’s twenty three.
*
Like the baby, and the other apes,
we should’ve stopped growing long ago.
We were only millions a few centuries ago,
when Enlightenment blossomed
and we became of age on the world stage.
That’s when all hell broke loose
and we became Earth’s noose.
The Lotus Queen
She who had it all was sad
and searched high and low
without finding happiness.
No one could tell her how
or where to find it.
For many years
she suffered hardships
wandering far and near,
but the answer
was always there,
never here.
*
Only after she stopped
wandering and living without fear
did the answer become clear:
happiness is a state of mind;
it’s freedom from desire.
They celebrated her wisdom
and called her the Lotus Queen.
*
Every spring
she comes to life
in the purest of white
to still the mind
and rid it of desire.
Humanity’s Pyramid
The human race
has fallen from grace.
Driven by greed
we live beyond need.
*
We’re all subservient
to the One in the sky
and self-proclaimed appointees
who won’t share the pie.
*
Arrogance and deception
abound in stratified society.
No one pays heed
to those in need.
No one gives a hoot
for the common boot.
*
No matter how wealthy,
everyone feels poorer than he
who flies high above the sky
to experience zero gravity,
at great expense to society.
*
There’s a ladder we climb
because higher we want to go
consuming mindlessly to stay in toe,
for downward nobody wants to go.
*
We hurt each other and humanity
when we stratify society.
The pyramids of Egypt are still there
but those who built them are nowhere!
The Only World I Know
This is the only world I know
and deep down it troubles me so.
The feeling isn’t right. I see the blight.
We’re no longer in tune with the light.
*
Mother nature wasn’t always kind.
Tempests, storms, volcanoes erupting
made early life so disrupting.
Though our fight for survival made us strong
our coping mechanisms were slow
to pose a threat to the planet we know.
*
With technology though,
Greedy Titans told
mother nature where to go.
Having conquered Earth
they also want Space,
forgetting the human race.
*
All these dreams of escaping gravity
are signs of hubris far and near.
After poisoning our biosphere
the Titans live in fear
and set their sights on planet B.
*
Technology was not the tool
for taming mother nature,
but for satiating the Titan’s greed.
Sadly, we followed their lead.
*
Thanks to the industrial revolution,
in just a few centuries,
we’ve gone from millions to billions
of mouths to feed, destroying everything
like swarms of locusts in the spring.
*
We’re kind creatures, I’d like to think,
but collectively, we destroy everything!
Individual greed is a human flaw;
collective greed is the last straw!
*
If collective greed is destroying our only home
there’s still hope for saving humanity.
The name of that light flickering beyond the sea
is collective action and humility.
Mama Burns on Her Funeral Pyre
Mama, grown old and gray
cries almost every day.
Nothing she can do or say
her children now hold sway.
It is they who suffer now
there’s no more earth to plow,
no more seeds to sow,
and no more food to grow.
Mama burns on her funeral pyre;
her children face eternal fire.
Save them from perdition:
stop adding fuel to the fire!
The toll is evident now.
They need to survive, but how?
Will they beg divine intervention
or reform their harmful intentions?
Technology Goddess/Sorceress
Growing up,
technology was a goddess,
so much loved and praised
for all the things she could do.
She washed and dried our clothes
and did the dishes too!
She kept our food from spoiling
and cleaned the carpets anew.
She awed us with electricity.
Every day we expected something new.
But a goddess she ceased to be
when she turned to digital sorcery.
We woke up one day, gasping in despair.
Facilitating hate mail, fraud,
disinformation and fear,
a scourge she became everywhere.
In her goddess days,
she freed us from drudgery.
In her witching ways,
she enslaves us with grudgery.
Betraying our trust,
a digital dopamine curse
she unleashed upon the pure.
Awe has turned to fear!
Mirrors of My Life
How tiny they used to be,
back then in their nursery.
Then time just flew.
They had things to do,
And I had work to attend to.
When they went away,
the house felt cold and grey.
The years passed, as they always do,
and now they have happy homes too.
When they visit, occasionally,
we talk, laugh and bicker too.
One such day, I saw in them,
reflections of someone I knew.
That day, I felt love and pain
simultaneously,
for as different as they are,
in each of them lay
the spectre of the loved one
who preceded me.
I’d Like to Know
If virtue is goodness,
Then it's a thing of the past.
We lost it daily little by little.
Why is it so?
I'd like to know.
If we gain knowledge bit by bit,
And enlightenment comes only
By losing attachment bit by bit,
Why do we accumulate so much?
I'd like to know.
If wisdom is being non-judgmental,
Seeing things plainly like children do,
Then it's a thing of the past too.
Why is it so?
I'd like to know.
If people who don't know are those we hear,
And those who know keep silence dear,
Then what we hear is what we don't need to know.
Why is it so?
I'd like to know.
If debt were not a four-letter word,
Governments would be debt free,
But they're swimming in it!
Why is it so?
I'd like to know.
First Floral Show of the Year
Under the melting snow,
Crocus is starting to grow.
It's head will soon show,
as it's body rises from below.
The Ides of March is nearly here.
The snow should soon disappear,
setting the stage for the first
floral show of the year.
Crocus will be in good company,
sharing the stage with Dwarf Iris,
Glory of the Snow, Grape Hyacinth,
Lily of the Valley and Daffodil,
a symphony of colour and good will.
The script was written long ago.
The actors know their roles by heart.
The only uncertainty is March,
The craziest month of the year!
Why do I hold March so dear?
Two crazies, a long time ago,
tied the knot under the biggest
Snow storm of the year!
Every March we celebrate
our wedding anniversary,
as soon as the snow clears,
with the first floral show of the year!